


Riverside Drabble Collection

by Brigdh



Category: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: Backstory, Drabble Collection, First Time, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-01-03 16:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brigdh/pseuds/Brigdh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Riverside drabbles, written at different times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Consequence

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompts on LJ.  
> Chapter One: Written for ashoka. Richard and Jessica on Kyros.  
> Chapter Two: Written for just-ann-now. "Ever since you left I've thought of nothing else / Been a man possessed by the way your touch felt" (Simone White: What the Devil Brings)  
> Chapter Three: Written for just-ann-now. "A dangerous daughter in a leopard print skirt / A Polaroid camera recording the dirt" (Suede: Attitude)  
> Chapter Four: Written for Just-ann-now. "Darkness, darkness bind him to me / Hide him in your velvet cloak" (Richard Shindell: Fenario)

The girl was impatient, loud, small. Alec said she looked nothing like him- though Richard thought he lied- and had continually messy hair the red of mahogany. Richard sometimes touched the softness of it, the fine strands. Despite all her movement and noise, she seemed fragile to him, bones as thin as birds'. It made Richard feel heavy.

She was their consequence, like a souvenir from a part of Alec's life they never talked of. And yet, who were they to her, but old men: perhaps unfriendly, surely unremarkable. She was her own.

She seemed light when he lifted her.


	2. Haunting

Richard had been seduced before, and usually found the process somewhat boring, but Alec’s approach was new. He flickered between skittishness and ferocity, both inept and boundlessly arrogant. He once drawled in a condescending tone, “Why won’t you leave me alone?”, and immediately followed it with a consuming kiss, long fingers knotted in Richard’s hair. He broke away just as abruptly, and Richard dreamed of him that night, of his wine-tart mouth.

He was beautiful and clever and made people uneasy. Richard wanted him. Alec’s smile bared his teeth, and he took his victory in a gratifyingly unpredictable way.


	3. Leopard Print Skirt

Typically, each sailor gets one share of the prizes. The captain gets ten shares. The cabin boy– girl– gets half.

It wasn’t much gold, so Jessica made her choice from the cargo. She sorted through spices and wines, cotton cloth and silk, until she found it.

The pelt was pale gold, adorned with wild black rosettes, and nearly as long as she was tall. She reached out and stroked her palm across the short soft fur, and smelled leather and musk. She thought of hot summers and dry grass, the silent stalk of hunting cats.

“I’ll take this,” Jessica said.


	4. In Your Velvet Cloak

Michael knew how to behave appropriately when parting from a lover on the morning after: how to sigh, how to drag his feet, how to swear that it was still early – and later, the right poetry for a letter that balanced delicately between reluctance and desire. And eventually, of course, how to break things off.

Diane too did everything right, but for once he didn’t appreciate her good taste. It drove him crazy, knowing that her actions were evidence of practice and not of passion. He loved her, he meant every word – and she smiled coolly and put him aside.


End file.
